Essay on Antibiotics and its Impact

Free 700 words essay on antibiotics and its impact for school and college students.

The age of antibiotics was ushered in after the discovery of penicillin drug, which was produced by a fungus. It was discovered to kill the bacteria which caused deadly human infection. It was in the 1940s when widespread fermentation process materialized the utilization of antibiotics and created a revolution in the field of medicines. Fundamentally, antibiotics protect a body from bacteria by stopping the latter’s vital processes, reproduction, and multiplication. Thereafter, the body’s immune system fights the infection naturally. Antibiotics are even classified into a broad spectrum and narrow spectrum antibiotics.

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Use of antibiotics drastically reduced the incidents of deaths due to bacterial infections. It is easy to administer drug facilitating its usage in case of genuine requirements. The chances of getting cured are undoubtedly high with this cost-effective drug. In the age of modern medicine, antibiotics are said to the most prescribed drug ever.

Antibiotics have immunomodulatory side-effects. Besides, there are possibilities of an allergic reaction, other than the potential side-effects of indigestion, diarrhea, nausea, etc. It can even cause some serious side-effects such as retinal detachment, irregular palpitations of heart, spasmodic muscle pain, undermined gut health, etc. Humans have the tendency to take antibiotics even in the case of mild respiratory tract infections like common cold, which does not help stop it. In fact, it is consequential in fomenting complications in the body.

Counting on the unintended consequences of antibiotics, studies have shown cases of fatal diarrhea among children, who are susceptible to any such excesses. Moreover, antibiotics cause intestinal oversensitivity unsettling the natural balance. When it comes to resistance, bacteria are known to pass on this characteristic to others while moving through the body. Another nasty aggression is of untreatable gonorrhea that gives birth to other inflammatory diseases. Some common side effects of antibiotics are rashes, fungal or yeast infections, stomach irregularities, facial inflammation, dizziness, etc. Just the administration of drugs shoots up medical bills and expenses, irrespective of the disproportionate relief it is said to have delivered.

Irregularities such as over-prescription, incessant usage, and incomplete dosages have led to the development of antibiotic resistance that haunts even the most prolific medical practitioners and pharmaceutics worldwide. It has now snowballed into the creation of Superbugs, the antibiotic resistant bacteria that is presently a colossal threat to human health on the planet. This problem has seen unprecedented concern worldwide, with WHO issuing dire warnings and the best medical facilities investing steadily in the research and development to contain the exasperating ill-effects of superbugs. Bacteria undergo genetic mutation and shield itself from the therapeutic effects of antibiotics, thus, causing resistance. Other than affecting the pathogen, antibiotics cause collateral damage to the commensal inhabitants of the host body.

The issue of unused antibiotics offers another menace to the human race as well as ecology. Improperly disposed or unused antibiotics in the pharmaceutical industry wastewater and the non-metabolized antibiotics of the human body are discharged into sewage. The treatment plants are ill-equipped when it comes to reduction or destruction of these drugs. Unfortunately, it re-enters our environment and can even find a place in drinking water supply. A contamination of this scale can be dangerous. The residues of untreated and undecomposed antibiotics drastically change the balance of water bodies, adversely affecting the marine ecosystem. It disrupts the food chain wreaking havoc to the ecological balance, as observed from a more comprehensive and holistic perspective. This upheaval can cause carcinogenic or allergic reactions too.

Antibiotics are administered to animals as well in form of veterinary medicines or feed additives. Disintegration at this level too is undefined and uncontrolled. Their levels in water, soil, and environmental is perpetually unregulated, which make it a serious potential health hazard.

There has to be a common methodology to improve this drug predicament. Doctors suggest the right and complete administration of doses. The problem of resistance itself has developed from the antibiotics proof bacteria. Independent research has shown that even one dose of antibiotics increases the chance of development of resistance by 50%. Multilateral organizations and national governments have expressed serious concern about this health hazard and promised solidarity in fighting against the same. This problem wouldn’t have been so severe and intimidating if requisite measures were taken along with dissemination of awareness to the common public. Antibiotics have been the miracle drugs for humans, and hence it must be used with sheer prudence.